Hence those miserable monsoon floods.
"Today Calcutta still is the urban hub for
a vast region of eastern India containing 150
million people," says the sociologist. "Nine
out of ten of them are peasants. A third of
these are landless and impoverished."
What does that mean in human terms?
"If the head of a family dies, the widow is
lucky if she can sweep floors and wash clothes
for neighbors, for two square meals a day.
But those aren't really square meals, because
she must feed her children too. If a son grows
up strong, he will have plenty to do at harvest
time, but what then? If he's energetic, he'll
try to come to Calcutta."
That's why in this largely Bengali city
there are three males to every two females;
and of these three men, one is from Bihar
here without his family, doing strenuous
physical work. My ricksha puller was typical.
So are the men I meet when one evening, in
the marshy eastern part of town, I trace a
curious smell. Bones are boiling in great vats,
to get the fat out. I enter a cavernous shed.
Boiled bones everywhere, as high as I can
see. It could be the setting for a horror movie.
It's a bone mill.
Not human bones, of course; just waste
from daily garbage, but not to be wasted.
Noisy machinery grinds, sifts, and grinds
again, exceedingly fine, for fertilizer. A dozen
Biharis work here 13 hours a day, to earn
overtime. They sleep here too, to save rent.
One asks me: "Would you like to open a mill
like this? I can find you good workers, from
my village. They would work hard for you."
MY INTERPRETER says that in the
dim light this Bihari must have taken
me for a Marwari.
What are Marwaris? They're at the top of
Calcutta's economic heap. They hail from the
desert region of Rajasthan a thousand miles
away, mostly from the district of Marwar.
They are merchants and entrepreneurs
who've been moving in as British capital
moves out. Their most notable family is the
Birlas-hence the Birla Industrial and Tech
nological Museum, and the Birla Planetarium.
There are only about 1,000 Englishmen in
Calcutta now, and about 100,000 Marwaris.
At dusk quite a few of the latter can be found
before the Victoria Memorial-standing
around, gossiping and chewing betel nut,
drinking Coca-Cola or 11-UP. That's right,
11-UP. A Marwari takes me home to dinner.
DICKDURRANCEII
National Geographic,April 1973
546